Treading Water
by Iluvdolphins
Summary: Marshall and Mary got into another argument and are ignoring each other when Mary needs him most. When she and her teenage witness are kidnapped and thrown into a water tower its up to him to find her. Slight Marshall/Mary maybe more in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Well this is my first In Plain Sight story. Actually I just recently got into the series itself, so please let me know what you think of it! Needless to say, but I own nothing USA network does… I think…well its not mine 

Chapter 1:

Mary Shannon awoke as the sun streamed through her window. She couldn't believe how long she'd slept, but the past few days events, and the crying bit she had over her dad last night, had taken its toll. As much as she wanted to continue sleeping she had work to do today so she hauled herself out of bed and took a shower.

After her shower she dressed and went to the kitchen for her usual morning cup of coffee and was surprised to see a whole breakfast waiting for her.

"What's this? Ok who broke what?" Mary asked. "Or who's just broke?"

"Ha ha, very funny." Brandi said with a smile. "I just, wanted to thank you for what you did for me, and I know the best way is through your stomach, so I made pancakes and eggs. Let me know if you want something else, I can totally make it for you."

"No squish, this-this is great." Mary said sitting down in front of a plate of food.

Not five bites into the delicious meal and Mary's phone rang. She glanced down at the phone to see who it was that was disturbing her meal.

"Marshall this better be damn good. You're disturbing me and my breakfast." Mary said answering her phone.

"Oh my apologies, should I tell Stan you were coming in sometime today or should I tell him you're having an affair with your breakfast?"

"I'll be right in." She said and then clicked her phone off. "Hey, save these for me later?"

"Yeah, no problem." Brandi said with a smile though her voice broke clearly showing her disappointment.

"It really was the best ever squish. I'm going to have to save your ass more often." Mary told her sister, giving her a smile while putting on her jacket and heading out the front door.

Mary jumped into her car sighing and crossing her fingers that the stupid thing would even start, let alone get her to the office. As it slowly grumbled to a start she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. _I really need to get a new car._  
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Marshall sighed as he hung up his phone. He hated to admit even to himself that he had been worried when Mary was ten minutes late. Even though that was a normal event for her in the past, ever since she had been kidnapped he couldn't help but stare at his phone, wanting, almost needing, to call and check up on her.

Marshall chuckled. He was acting ridiculous. He shook his head and closed the case file that was opened in front of him and opened another one.

Stan came walking out of his office and looked around the small little rooms.

"Can I help you find something Stan?" Marshall asked following his bosses erratic movement s with his eyes.

"Where's Mary?" Stan asked.

"Uh, not in yet, but she's on her way. Why what's up." Marshall asked.

"Oh, uh, noth-nothing. I just have a witness for her." Stan said and headed back to his office.

Marshall nodded and returned back to his work in front of him, clearly he wasn't the only one worried about Mary since that crappy day  
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Mary walked out of the elevator and slid her card and opened the door to their office. She walked over to her desk and sat down.

"You know Mary, when you're going to be late you could let us know." Marshall said not looking up from his case file.

"I'm sorry I didn't let my keeper know where I was. Next time I'll be sure to call you every five minutes to let you know what I'm doing. Better yet you could get me a collar with a tracking device in it." Mary said her anger rising.

"All I'm saying is that the kidnapping thing has us a little on the edge."

"Has you 'a little on the edge?' I'm sorry for causing you such trouble next time I'll think about what it'll do to you and Stan before I get kidnapped." Mary said slamming closed a drawer she had been looking through.

Before Marshall had a chance to apologize for his unreasonable outburst, Stan came out of his office and walked up to Mary's desk.

"Mary, I got a new witness for you." Stan said handing her a folder.

"Well, where are they?" Mary asked looking around for someone sitting at a table looking as if they'd lost everything.

"Well you see that's the thing. I need you to go pick them up. We're a little short handed these days and there won't be anyone able to go and get her for quite a while, and I think it would be best if we got her into our custody as soon as possible." Stan explained.

"Fine where is…" Mary asked opening the file. "Amber?"

"She's up in Farmington." Stan said awaiting her outburst that was soon to come from the news of the 6 hour round trip through the desert.

"Fine, I need some fresh air anyway." She said glancing quickly at Marshall before grabbing her badge and gun and headed for the exit.

"Wait, I'll go with you." Marshall offered starting to grab his gear.

"Don't bother; this shouldn't be too much trouble, no need for both of us to be bothered by it. Oh, and don't worry I'll make sure to call you if I get lost and won't be home in time for dinner." Mary said before leaving the office and heading to the elevator.

Marshall had his hands up in surrender and looked to Stan on what he should do about the situation.

"Let her go. She's right it shouldn't take two marshals to transport this witness, and clearly she needs to be on her own anyway." Stan said and headed for his office. "She'll call if she needs help."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Marshall said as he sat down and continued working on his own witnesses.  
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A/N: Again thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

To say that Mary was mad would be an understatement. She knew what her kidnapping did to those around her, and she blamed herself for most of it. She knew that her sister was crushed even if she wasn't exactly in love with Chuck, and Mary knew she should have been able to convince Spanky not to fire that gun, that's what she was trained to do. She also knew that all the time she was in that basement Marshall and Stan went through a lot to find her and get her out a situation that she was, once again, supposed to trained to get out of herself, so yeah, to say she blamed herself was another understatement.

But that did not mean she needed it thrown in her face that way.

Mary was so in depth with those thoughts that she didn't even register her phone ringing until about the fourth ring, and at this point she didn't have time to check who was calling, although she already had a pretty good guess at who would be checking up on her.

"What?" Mary asked a little annoyed.

"Sorry to bother you." It was Brandi. "I just wanted to know if you'd be here for dinner."

"Sorry about that squish. I don't know they got me going on an errand that might take me quite a while, so better not wait for me." Mary answered.

"Ok, I guess mom and I'll just order a pizza or something. What's up with you anyway. You sound upset, well more so than usual."

"Nothing just got in a fight with Marshall." Mary answered.

"Oh please, you guys are practically joined at the hip. You should just shrug it off, I mean it's obvious he has feelings for you." Brandi said.

"Yeah it's called a pain in his ass." Mary replied.

"Ah, so you think the fight is your fault huh?" Brandi asked and Mary didn't answer. "It probably isn't you know."

"Yeah, thanks squish." Mary answered trying to keep the tears, starting to swim in her eyes, from falling. "Listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah okay Mary." Brandi said and then the conversation ended.

Mary hung her phone up and continued to watch the road in front of her. She knew she should call Marshall and apologize, but her pride wouldn't let her at the moment. The conversation with Brandi had left her feeling vulnerable and the last thing she needed right now was to call Marshall and have him say some smart-ass comment that was bound to make her feel worse, even if he didn't mean it that way.

Luckily Mary didn't have long to think about that phone call before she pulled into the parking lot at the federal building and parked the company SUV.

She walked inside, flashed her badge, and was shown where there were keeping her witness. She was led to room that had no windows and only a small table with a very uncomfortable chair, but what did she expect from this small area, she was surprised they even held witnesses. (sorry I don't really know anything about Farmington NM other than it was fairly close to Albuquerque so I apologize if I am totally wrong about the size)

"Hi, my name is Mary Shepard, I'm a marshal from the WITSEC program. I will be taking you to Albuquerque." She said to the teenager in front of her.

"Well it's about time; I've been sitting in this hell-hole for, like, three hours." Amber said standing up. "I hope your car has air conditioning."

"Has she signed everything?" Mary asked with a sigh.

"Yeah she's good to go." The officer said. "Good luck."

"Yeah, thanks. I may need it."

Mary led Amber out to the car and got them situated and ready to go.

"Ugh, it's like a garbage dump in here. Don't you ever clean?" Amber complained.

"Sorry that's my partner's job and as you can see he isn't here, now is he? Get it." Mary said getting in the driver's seat.  
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Marshall knew he shouldn't have said all that to Mary but once he started talking it all just came out. He sighed as he closed another file folder of paperwork and got up. He needed to get some air.

"Stan I'm going to get some lunch; you want me to bring you anything?" Marshall asked heading toward the door.

"No, thanks Marshall." Stan said taking a sip of his coffee.

Half an hour later Marshall returned with some food, and took a seat at his desk. He might as well call her and apologize. He picked up his phone and dialed her number. After one ring he was sent to her voice mail, he knew what that meant. She was ignoring him.

"Hey that looks pretty good." Stan said looking at Marshall's lunch.

"Here" Marshall said handing Stan a small wrapped sandwich. "I knew you'd want something so I got you this."

"Thanks, oh and Mary arrived at the fed building and grabbed the girl. She should be on her way back now." Stan told him.  
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Mary looked at her phone again for about the sixth time. She looked at who was calling just in case it wasn't Marshall again, but rejected the call when she found out it was indeed him calling again.

"Who keeps calling you?" Amber asked.

"Nobody. Just my partner." Mary replied not taking her eyes off the road in front of her.

"What did he do?"

"What?" Mary asked starting to get pestered by the teen's frequent questions.

"I asked you what he did; you're obviously pissed at him for something." Amber pointed out.

"He did nothing wrong. I did, and I'm just not ready to admit it yet. He'd never let it go." Mary explained.

"Ah I see. You're that type."

"What type?"

"The kind that won't admit when they're wrong." Amber explained. "My dad was that type too."

"Yeah, I'm that kind." Mary said.

Mary checked her rearview mirror and saw a big black truck behind them. _How long have they been there?_ She wondered.

Just then the truck sped up and attempted to pass their SUV. But as soon as it was right beside the car it swerved into Mary's lane causing her to swerve to miss getting hit.

"Damn it! Hold on!" Mary shouted once again looking in her rearview mirror only to see another black truck.

The one on her side swerved to hit her again as the truck behind her sped up and hit her from behind. This time there was nothing Mary could do to prevent being hit. She tried to speed up but they sped up with her.

One final hit from both the side and back made Mary lose control of the SUV causing it to roll off of the road and down a slight hill. The last thing Mary remembered before going off the road was the smirk of the man in the truck next to her and the screams from Amber.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for those of you who reviewed! I'm sorry for not updating very quickly. I will try to update faster!

Chapter 3:

The SUV finally stopped rolling a few yards away from the road, coming to a stop upside down. Mary shook her head to try and clear her mind while deciding what to do next. She undid her seat belt and crashed down onto all fours scratching her knees and hands on the small shards of glass. She looked over at Amber. She looked to be unconscious, probably from hitting her head on the dash board.

Mary quickly glanced out one of the broken windows and saw a couple of men walking toward the car. Quickly Mary grabbed her jacket from what was once the backseat and some supplies from an emergency kit they kept in the back, hiding it in a secret pocket in her jacket before putting it on and crawling out her window with her hands raised.

"Please, let me just get her out of the car!" She yelled her hands still raised.

Mary stood as still as she could, her nerves having been shot after the crash, and waited for their answer. One of the men looked at the other before nodding. "Drop the guns first though."

Mary removed her gun from the holster around her waist and threw it on the ground, then started to walk to the other side of the car before the man stopped her again. "The other one too."

Mary sighed and pulled the gun out of her ankle holster and threw it next to the other one then walked around the wreck. She quickly released Amber from the seatbelt and gently pulled her out through the window. As she pulled her out Amber regain consciousness.

"Wha-what's going on?" She asked trying to remember what happened.

"Hello Amber." The one of the men said as he picked up Mary's weapons.

"What do you want?" Amber asked her voice squeaking.

"We have someone who wants to talk to you." Was all he replied with before he grabbed her from behind hanging onto her arms.

"Amber don't fight." Mary advised as the other man grabbed her just the same and directed them back toward the road where the trucks were undoubtedly waiting.  
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It was getting late into the afternoon when Stan left his office. He headed over to Eleanor's desk and asked her to copy some things before heading over to Marshall's desk.

"Have you heard from Mary? I would have thought she would have been back by now." Stan asked.

"No, I'm sure she's fine though. She's probably just setting the witness up with some place to stay." Marshall said trying to pay attention to his computer screen.

"Why don't you try and give her a call. Just check up." Stan suggested.

"Well I could, but she's been ignoring all my calls since this morning."

"You guys fighting again?" Stan asked with a sigh.

"Well fighting is such a bad term, as no fists flew at either one of us. We had…a disagreement." Marshall explained.

"You guys." Stan sighed once again and walked back into his office.  
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"Where are you taking us?" Amber asked from the back seat, the man that grabbed her sitting next to her with a gun next to her head.

When there was no reply she settled with watching out the window. Mary knew better than to ask any questions from these kinds of people. To be honest she couldn't believe this was happening to her yet again. Letting herself get kidnapped again and the witness she was _supposed_ to be protecting.

"You're in on it too aren't you?" Amber accused Mary. "That's why you're not fighting back!"

Mary didn't even look at Amber. Mary would have fought back if she had a gun and if her witness wasn't sitting there with a gun to her head. She'd be dead before Mary could even do anything worthy. The car soon came to a stop and they were forced out of the car.

They started walking out into what looked like the middle of nowhere. The only structure close by was an old water tower.

"An old water tower! That's where you're taking me?" Amber asked clearly shocked.

"Yeah, our boss don't want you getting away so easily, but in case he don't want to see you again well…you can only tread water for so long." He said with a chuckle.

They continued walking until they were standing right next to the water tower facing the ladder that would take them up to the door that led to their soon to be watery prison. Mary had to admit, she didn't have a plan to get them out of this yet and that fact scared the crap out of her.

"So who's your boss?" Mary asked trying to stall.

"Oh no you don't" One of the men said grabbing Mary by the hair and holding a gun to her chin. "Now up you go little girl and don't you think about coming down or I'll shoot your little marshal here."

"Whatever she's probably the one who called you guys." Amber said but never the less started up the long and unstable looking ladder.

As soon as Amber got to the top and opened the door she took one look and debated about climbing back down, but she knew not only would they kill Mary but they would surly kill her too. So she sucked in a breath, held her nose and jumped in.

"Now it's your turn sweetheart." The man that was holding Mary said pushing her toward the ladder.

Mary started climbing. Every rung she took she felt the whole ladder shake. She would be surprised if she made it to the top. Once she made it to the top she looked in and saw that Amber was treading water. Mary quickly took off her jacket.

"I cannot stress how important it is to our survival that this jacket stay dry. I know you don't trust me, but I've got to believe that you want to make it out of here alive." Mary whispered and then tossed her jacket in where Amber caught it and kept it above her head and away from the water. Mary then carefully jumped in as far away from Amber as possible.

The door slammed shut behind her from someone she didn't hear come up behind her, and they were thrown into total darkness. Then they heard a loud crash followed by the sound of the trucks driving away.

A/N: Once again thanks for reading! And please push the little button to review and tell me what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks for the reviews and sorry for the wait!!!!

Chapter 4:

Mary resurfaced from jumping in and wiped the water out of her face. How could she have let this happen?

"So now what do we do? Any other bright ideas?" Amber asked.

"Yeah keep talking so I know where to swim to." Mary said.

"Yeah sure, should I talk about how this is all your fault, or how those men who threw us in here will come back in a few days and find our dead floating bodies?"

"Hmm, the second one sounds like a more promising conversation maker." Mary answered as she swam to Amber's side.

"At least the water is cool. It was so hot out there."

"Yeah well you just wait until night fall which," Mary looked at her watch. "is in about three hours. The desert gets pretty cold at night and so will this water."

Mary reached into the spare pocket that she had stowed all of the supplies should could manage before getting out of the car, she just hoped that there was something in there that could help them. She quickly grabbed and snapped the glow stick she found causing it to give off a green hue to their surroundings.

"How many of those do you have?"

"It looks like three. Now let's see what we have to deal with in hear." Mary said as she looked around.

There was nothing on the walls that they could climb on to get out of the water, and there was no handle on the door to open from the inside, so they were now officially trapped. The only refuge from the water was a small ledge that the door made when closed, and even still it would only allow one of them to escape the water and Mary knew which one of them it would be.

She then dropped the glow stick in the water and watched as it slowly drifted down to the bottom.

"What did you do that for?" Amber asked a shocked look on her face.

"Eight feet of water or so." Mary answered. "Okay, give me the coat and jump up on that ledge." Mary instructed pointing at the door.

Amber practically shoved the jacket into Mary's awaiting hands and proceeded to swim over to the door. It took her a few tries but she finally got situated on the ledge. Mary then gave her the jacket again.

"Get into that pocket and grab another glow stick, then there should also be some bandages in the pocket too, so use them for the cuts on your arms." Mary said now being able to use her arms to help her tread water.

"You got any pool floaties in here?" Amber asked rolling her eyes.

"Unfortunately no." Mary answered. "I wish I had my phone."

"You do." Amber stated and when she was faced with Mary's puzzled look continued. "When you _refused_ to take your partner's calls you placed it in your jacket pocket. Right here." She said pulling out Mary's phone.

"I knew there was a reason I didn't let them kill you." Mary said reaching for the phone.  
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After Marshall's final attempt at apologizing to Mary, he set his phone on his desk and returned to his paperwork. Moments later he was called away into Stan's office. Shortly after he left his phone started vibrating.

Eleanor heard the vibrating phone but figured it wasn't important and that they would call back.  
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"Damn it Marshall! This is not a time to be teaching me a lesson!" Mary yelled at her phone when he didn't answer, it was bad enough her signal sucked and her battery was dying, she didn't need him ignoring her.

"Maybe now would be a good time to contemplate picking up the next time he calls." Amber said.

Mary rolled her eyes and tried the phone again. When he once again failed to answer her call, another thought came to her, Eleanor.

She searched through her contacts and found Eleanor's pager number and sent her a message: 911.  
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Eleanor was beginning to become annoyed with whoever it was that decided to call Marshall's phone every five seconds. Then her beeper went off, and a cold shiver went down her back as she read the message and whom it was from.

Then before she could place her beeper down and decide what she should do, Marshall's phone once again went off.

"Marshall, answer your damn phone!" Eleanor yelled causing both men to exit the office and Marshall picked up his phone.

"Mary?!" He answered.  
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"Marshall! It's about damn time." Mary answered. "Listen Marshall, we were ambushed. I'm not sure where we are but we are miles out of the city. They've stuck us in a water tower. Amber is safe, but we need help to get out of here. Marshall? Marshall!" She once again yelled at her phone as the screen went black and the battery died.

"Well, are you guys back on speaking terms or are we stuck here?" Amber asked with a smirk on her face.

"It could go either way."  
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Marshall frowned as the line went dead. Because of the bad signal strength he could only make out parts of her story.

"Well from the words I actually heard I have to believe she was ambushed on her way back here, and the scum bags who ambushed them stuck them in a water tower." Marshall said still staring at the "Call Ended" message on his phone.

"Eleanor, I need you to find out how many water towers there are between here and Farmington. Lets hope there aren't too many, it being the desert." Stan instructed heading into his office to call Bobby D.

Marshall went to his computer going to work on finding out who would be after the teenager Mary was protecting, when the phrase Mary said kept playing over and over in his head," _Amber is safe._" Marshall couldn't help but here that as "she's fine but I'm not."

Marshall sighed as his home page came up and he saw the low tonight. It was going to get cold and Mary was swimming in a big pool of water with no escape. Being him, he knew just what happened to those who spent long periods of time in freezing water, he just hoped that he could find her in time before hypothermia set it and he lost her forever.

A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for not updating sooner…I wanted to but my computer was having issues and I didn't have access to my Word documents…sorry! Anyway thanks to all that reviewed and I hope that you like this chapter!

Chapter 5:

Mary could only hope that Marshall had heard enough of her message to know where to start searching for her and Amber, although she was never one to hold much hope, she felt the sudden need to do so for Amber. She owed her that much at least.

"So, does your boyfriend normally take this long to find people. It's been how long since you called him?" Amber asked looking at her nails, not that she could really see anything, the only light coming from the green glow of the glow stick that was in her lap.

"It's been about an hour and a half, he's not my boyfriend, and Marshall… he's good at what he does." Mary said knowing her words were true, but also knowing she hadn't done such a good job at giving him great leads to go on to get them out of this mess.

"Well I hope he's better at what he does than you are, and why not?"

"What do you mean?" Mary sighed, getting a little cranky from being tired.

"You and your 'partner'," Amber said with "air quotes." "I mean it's obvious from this side of the relationship that you feel something for him."

"Marshall's my best friend, my only friend."

"No, I mean more than that." Amber said.

"I don't know what you mean."

"No, of course you don't." Amber said nodding her head followed by a long silence.

"Listen, this isn't easy for me… but I need to apologize." Mary said and Amber's mouth fell open. "If I had been more focused on my job this may not have happened, but no matter what I did, or in this case didn't do, I did not hand you over to those pieces of shit."

There was total silence for minutes. Mary very rarely apologized to anybody, but this was her witness, and she took that responsibility seriously. How could she have let this happen?

"I guess I was wrong." Amber said quietly. "You aren't like my dad. He would never say he was sorry."

"Thanks." Mary said nodding her head. "Normally I read, well get told what's in the file before I get the person, but this time I didn't get the chance. So, why are they after you?"

Amber sighed and looked away. "My dad left when I was little, leaving my mom to look after me and my little sister. We used to always get on each other's nerves." She said with a smile and Mary couldn't help but think of herself.

"About a month ago, these men came into our house at night. My mom was braiding my sister's hair while I was in my mom's bathroom. Next thing I knew I heard gun shots, I turned to see what was going on and there was my mom and sister lying on the bed, blood pouring out." She said tears going down her cheeks. "They must not have seen me, but I heard them look down stairs for something before they left, and I called the police."

Mary was not very good at the comforting thing, so she decided that it would be best if she just stayed quiet.

"Hey you must be getting tired, you want to switch places?" Amber offered.

"No." Mary answered. "I need you to stay dry; if you get wet now then I have to worry about you becoming hypothermic."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine." Mary said with a small smile. "This is why we marshals go to the gym."  
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Stan and Eleanor had narrowed down the number of water towers in the area Mary was believed to have gone missing. There were about seven of them, and Bobby D and Stan had already left to start looking for each and every one of them.

Marshall on the other hand was still doing research on the men who could possibly be after Mary's witness, Amber, he believed her name was. It turned out that she was going to be testifying against Frank Jefferson, who was currently in jail, for committing the murders of her mother and little sister. Also through reading her file he picked out something the police had obviously not picked up on. She had told them that they had been looking for something, which means that they wouldn't kill her if she knew where it was.

This also meant that the men would be returning, and if they were smart, which he doubted, they would return tonight, before they drown, which didn't give him much time to find his partner.

He picked up his badge and gun, and after forwarding his office phone to his cell phone he left the office and started for his car. He was going to retrace Mary's steps and see if he could find anything.

It was starting to get dark when Marshall drove by the officers who were processing Mary's car. It was totaled, and Marshall couldn't help but cringe at the thought of someone actually being in the twisted piece of metal he saw now, as it rolled off the road. Marshall didn't even slow down as he passed the scene, he knew that if they found anything there Stan would call him, so he kept going looking for anything, anyone that might have saw what had happened.  
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Mary alternated between floating on her back and treading water. Her arms and legs were getting tired and she didn't know how much longer she could stay afloat, but she wasn't going to tell amber that. She looked at her watch, it was definitely getting late and her hope, the small amount she did have, began to drain.

"That water is freezing!" Amber said having stuck her fingers in it. "Take the coat."

"No." Mary refused. "It would only drag me down in the water." She answered back calmly, although the fact that the water was freezing and the fact she couldn't tell that, scared her out of her mind. "Promise me no matter what you won't get into this water."

"What?"

"Promise." Mary said sternly.

"Fine, I promise." Amber replied rolling her eyes. "So what was it?"

"What was what?" Mary asked confused.

"What made you so mad at your partner?"

"You're picking now, of all times, to ask me that?" Mary asked.

"Come on, I got to know and well, we might not make it out of here so,"

"First of all you will get out of here,"

"_We_." Amber said. "_We _had better get out of here. Your oh-so-charming attitude is growing on me, and I can't bear to see someone else die, so you'd better get out of here too."

"Right, _we're_ going to get out of here, but I will tell you." Mary said rolling her eyes. "He basically wanted to put me on a leash. I was late, and he got upset that I didn't call and tell him that I was okay."

"And you two _aren't_ dating?" Amber asked skeptical.

"No, we're not. I-I was kidnapped awhile ago, and he had to find me, so it's understandable that he would be worried. I told you it was my fault, and I just hadn't apologized yet. I make him worry all the time." Mary said zoning out.

"What happened?" Amber asked bringing Mary back out of her trance.

"They kidnapped me thinking I was my sister, shot her boyfriend in front of me," Mary started. "And then tried to rape me."

Amber was silent, not expecting that last part. She had no idea what to say. "I'm sorry."

"Don't go soft on me now kid. You were just growing on me too." Mary said with a smile. "Now you should try and get some sleep."

Thanks for reading!! Please review, and I shall try to update again soon!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Marshall finally came across a small, old looking grocery store. It was the only building he had come across out here in the desert, and was pretty sure that it was the only building until the city of Farmington. He pulled into the parking lot and walked inside. He looked around eagerly looking for whoever was working tonight.

"Hello! Hell- Oh Sir!" Marshall yelled eventually finding a short old man stocking a few shelves.

"Is there somethin' I can do for you sonny?" The old man asked.

"Do you know who was working earlier today?" Marshall asked.

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm a US Marshal." Marshall responded showing the man his badge.

"Yup, sure do."

"Well, do you know how to get a hold of them?" Marshall asked getting impatient.

"You're talkin' to him sonny."

"Okay, did anyone walk into the store today that looked odd to you?" Marshall asked.

"There are many odd lookin' people in the world today sonny? You're gonna have to be more specific."

Marshall sighed. "I'm looking for a couple of men." He said handing the man a picture from the file of Amber. "Probably look something like this."

"Oh yes, I saw a couple of these fellas walking around the store. Talkin' about rasslin' around with a couple of girls at a water tower. I'll tell ya, the kids these days." The old man said shaking his head.

"A water tower?!" Marshall asked. "Where's the nearest water tower from here?"  
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Amber woke from her awkward nap. The glow stick in at the bottom of the water and the one in her lap had gone out leaving her sitting in the dark. She didn't know why Mary hadn't said anything to her and used the last one.

"Why didn't you wake me when the lights went out?" Amber asked. "Come on, don't tell me you're sleeping."

After there was no answer, no noise what-so-ever. Amber started to panic.

"Mary? Mary that's not funny." Amber tried again to get her to answer but at no response she quickly stuck her hand into the pocket and grabbed the last glow stick.

She gasped as she skimmed the top of the water for Mary's face and couldn't find it. Amber quickly took off the jacket and jumped into the water holding the glow stick out in front of her and looked for Mary. She quickly found her and drug her to the top.

"Mary!" Amber yelled once they broke the surface of the water. "Mary! Come on wake up!"

Amber looked down at Mary's face. The green glow couldn't give Amber too much information on Mary's status but she could tell that Mary was cold and definitely not breathing. She started to consider her options, all she knew was she couldn't do CPR while trying to keep both of them afloat, and there was no way to get them out.  
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Marshall slammed on the gas pedal and sped off in the direction that the store owner had told him to go. He pulled out his cell phone and called Stan.

"Stan, I think I know where Mary is." Marshall said and rattled off his location. "I think we better have an ambulance there just in case."

"Got it. Now Marshall don't do anything until I get Bobby-D over there."

"Stan you know I can't do that." Marshall said fear and pain evident in his voice. "You better just get them over here as fast as you can."

"Yeah working on it Marshall, and be careful." Stan said and Marshall could hear as Stan got in the car and the sirens began.

"You got it." Marshall said and then snapped his phone shut.

As he approached the area where the water tower was Marshall turned his lights off as she saw a vehicle with lights on next to the water tower. The kidnappers had returned and now Marshall had to do something to stop them.  
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Amber started to panic, but she had to do something. Soon she heard a vehicle pull up close to the water tower, and at that moment she didn't care who it was; she just wanted help.

"Hello! Help!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and started banging on the door.

After waiting briefly to see if anyone would answer her cries, she started to scream again hoping beyond hopes that someone out there would open the door and release them from their freezing prison. The only answer she heard was some faint yelling before she heard a couple of shots.

She screamed instinctively and tried to remain as quiet as she could, torn between wanting to be found for Mary's sake and wanting to remain safe.

Soon the choice was made for her when the door opened and someone with a blinding flash light was looking in.  
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Marshall crept in toward the water tower, gun drawn, being careful not to make too much noise as he approached the men. They were standing outside of what looked like a cherry picker discussing some matter that Marshall could not hear, and frankly didn't care about at the moment. He drew his other gun as soon as he saw that there were two men.

As soon as they had started toward the basket of the cherry picker, obviously on their way up, he decided that it was time to make his presence know.

"Freeze, US Marshal!" He yelled stepping out into view, his guns pointed at each of the men.

The two men drew their guns too and started to yell at Marshall that if he wanted to see his "Marshal friend" that he better drop the guns.

"Sorry, I don't think I can do that." Marshall said tilting his head to one side. "Hey do you know who invented the cherry picker." He asked stepping closer to the men.

"Don't come closer!" One of them instructed shooting near Marshall's feet showing that he was indeed serious.

Marshall tried to talk them down, but that didn't work and the men started to become restless. As soon as the sirens were heard in the background and the lights from the cars could be seen coming down the highway toward them the men got distracted and Marshall took advantage and shot both men in the arm which held their weapons.

Marshall jumped up into the cherry picker and threw the men out as he used the controls to take him up to the door to the water tower. As soon as he reached the door he jerked it opened and shined his flash light in looking for his partner.

As he caressed the water with his flash light he ran across the frightened face of Mary's witness.

"Are you okay?"Marshall asked.

"Who are you?" Amber asked.

"My name is Marshall."

"Oh! Mary's partner!" She said in relief.

"Yeah," Marshall answered with a chuckle, of course she had talked about him.

"She's not breathing!" Amber said the fear returning to her voice.

The fear that was in her voice now reached his eyes as he reached in to help get Mary out before helping Amber into the cherry picker as well.

He quickly brought the cherry picker down and got Mary on the ground and started CPR. He knew it was probably a long shot, not knowing how long she had been unconscious, he had no idea what to expect if he ever got her breathing again, but he had read of stories from people who were deprived of oxygen for extended amount of time and still had full functioning of their brain, he had to hang onto that hope.

After a few rounds of CPR Mary began coughing and water spewed out of her lungs. She was shivering now as she rolled from her side back onto her back and stared up at who had saved her.

"Doofus?" She whispered and he nodded as a smile came to his face and he wrapped his coat over her.

She looked around again and saw where she was. She was just outside of the water tower, and she could hear the annoying sounds of sirens coming ever closer. Then her eyes landed on the soaked and shivering face of her witness.

"You promised." Mary whispered and Amber smiled.

"I lied."

Mary felt so tired, her breathing began to slow and she felt the strong pull on her eye lids. She knew that she would be going to sleep, it was inevitable, she could no longer fight it, but she didn't know if she would wake up again. However, she knew she had to tell Marshall something before she went to sleep.

She looked up at him again to make sure she had his attention and when his blue eyes met hers she knew he wasn't paying attention to anything else.

"I'm sorry Marshall." She whispered and then her eyes closed, her breathing stopped, and her heart stilled.

"No! Mary!" He yelled as he started CPR once again; the emergency vehicles approached them, and paramedics were jumping out of their trucks. "I need a medical team over here!"

Tee hee! You know cliffhangers are so much more fun from my end of them, right?! Please review!!


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